Travel Agents Speak Out Loud & Clear on NDC

DUBLIN – IATA succeeded in moving forward the discussion of the New Distribution Capability – somewhat – at its World Passenger Symposium here. But it still has a lot of work to do to convince travel agents that the net effect of NDC will be beneficial.

In part, that is due to the fact that NDC is almost entirely theoretical at this point. “We haven’t seen a solution yet,” said Clare Dunne, president of the Irish Travel Agents Association, in a panel discussion titled “NDC: Going forward.”

“If I can see something, it might be different.”

GDS bypass?
The uncertainty is also due to the initial rollout of NDC, which suggested that the goal might be to bypass the GDSs. “The messages were quite confrontational,” Dunne said. “They were not consistent with what we’ve heard in the last day or two.”

Moderator Marc Rosenberg, owner of the Marsalyn Creative consultancy and a former Air Canada executive, asked Dunne whether there was more clarity on the issue now.

Dunne paused, then said, “There’s more work to be done.”

Rosenberg, who was instrumental in forming the Air Canada-Travelport relationship that led to the creation of the Travelport Agencia desktop, acknowledged that “it didn’t come out in the way we would have liked, but we want to move forward.”

An issue of trust
Paul Tilstone, managing director of GBTA Europe, who was in the audience, said trust is the issue that needs to be addressed first.

“There are concerns about the business model, about bypassing existing processes,” he said.

Tilstone was at last year’s World Passenger Symposium in Abu Dhabi, where IATA’s Resolution 787 on NDC was approved, and he noted that “the first slide I saw about NDC was about the cost of distribution.”

Rosenberg responded, “I’m disappointed that you have that view, but we need to take note of the mistrust.”

Some participants did move beyond the trust issue to focus on specific concerns.

Biz travel concerns
An audience member who described himself as “a paranoid buyer for PriceWaterhouse Cooper,” said that what is “completely missing from the discussion” is the issue of self-booking tools.

Self-booking tools should be part of the NDC pilot programs, he said, adding that their role in NDC “hasn’t been communicated properly.”

Nick Vournakis, senior vice president, global marketing, for Carlson Wagonlit Travel, was concerned about travelers receiving individual “personalized” offers from airlines that might appeal to the traveler but fall outside a corporate client’s travel policy. “That’s a problem for us,” he said.

Rosenberg asked whether CWT risked spending more on travel if ancillary services were purchased on the airline’s website after a flight was booked in the GDS.

“That’s not how we see it,” replied Vournakis.

It’s complicated
Alexey Rostapshov, vice president of strategic partnerships at getgoing.com, an online travel agency, said he had concerns about the complexity of NDC, which would be magnified in an online-only environment. The challenge, he said, “is that the pipe is there, but what’s coming down the pipe? How do you simplify it for the consumer?”

Paul Wait, chief executive officer of the Guild of Travel Management Companies, said more collaboration and open dialogue was needed.

“Airlines need to make their own positions clear,” Wait said.

Vournakis agreed. “The more constituents brought in earlier, the better,” he said.

Perplexed by the furor
In the end, Rosenberg seemed more at a loss than the travel professionals who had weighed in on NDC. He said that in his 40 years in the travel business, “I have never seen an issue take on a life like this one, and I’m still confused as to why.”